Vulnerability

I've been thinking about this concept endlessly lately.  I found this video about a year and a half ago and it's just now hitting home.  I think I'll watch it every day for a month.  It's that good. 

Redefining Success

What is success?

To laugh often and much;

To win the respect of intelligent people

and the affection of children;

To earn the appreciation of honest critics

and endure the betrayal of false friends;

To appreciate beauty;

To find the best in others;

To leave the world a bit better, whether by

a healthy child, a garden patch

or a redeemed social condition;

To know even one life has breathed

easier because you have lived;

This is to have succeeded.

 

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

The Writer

"The writer must be in it; he can't be to one side of it, ever.  He has to be endangered by it.  His own attitudes have to be tested in it.  The best work that anybody ever writes is the work that is on the verge of embarrassing him, always." 

              

                  - Arther Miller

 as quoted in "Writing with Style" by John R. Trimble